


Two Rohirrim

by Himring, Zdenka



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Anglo-Saxon, Charm, Drabbles, Elegy, Female Protagonist, Gen, POV Female Character, Riddles, Rohan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-05-14
Packaged: 2018-01-18 13:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1430764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Himring/pseuds/Himring, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/pseuds/Zdenka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riddles about two female characters from Rohan.<br/>With solutions in verse by Zdenka: see chapter 2.<br/>Now added: three drabbles each about these two female characters (chapters 3 and 4).</p><p>Written for Legendarium Ladies April (on Tumblr) to the prompts of the Old English Writings challenge at Tolkien Weekly (on LiveJournal)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Two Ladies of Rohan

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: generalized summary of canon violence and related dark themes.  
> Have not chosen to use Archive Warnings because I was not sure whether "major character death" applied or not.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who these Ladies of Rohan are!  
> Then check Zdenka's solutions in alliterative verse in chapter 2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two semi-drabbles written for the prompt "riddle" in the Old English Writings Challenge on Tolkien Weekly.

I am no man—nor shrinking maid, either.  
Secret under helmet, I rode southwards,  
hearth forsaking, battle-death seeking,  
rode the path to ruin and a red morning;  
I drained that cup to its darkest dregs,  
bitter though they were, I found life at the bottom.  
Say, what am I called?  
  
A war was fought over my hand,  
yet I am woman—and unnamed.  
My suitor became my bitterest foe,  
yet no one had asked me.  
One brother died at the gates,  
the other lost in the snow—  
my father went fey,  
my grief unrecorded.  
My cousin succeeded.  
Who am I?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Old English riddles are really riddles and even very obscure, others are more like poems about their subject. They are often in the first person and end with variations of "Say what am I called?"


	2. Chapter 2

Hail to Éowyn, Éomund's daughter!  
Hid under helm, true-hearted was she.  
The foul wraith wrapped in shadow  
fell before her, fled into darkness.

* * *

This song I knew not, but sought to find:  
strife was kindled in the council-chamber.  
Sorrow she had from both suitor and kin --  
grim Helm's daughter, houseless, bereaved.


	3. Lady of Rohan I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eowyn & Theoden, her uncle.   
> Also Gleowine, Theoden's minstrel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> True drabbles first posted at Tolkien Weekly for the Old English Writings challenge for the prompts: charm, elegy

**_In the Bitter Watches of the Night_ **

She sits at her uncle’s bedside. Her lips move soundlessly.  
 _What ails my lord, I call thee foe._  
 _I summon thee! Thou dar'st not stay._  
 _Be thou shot of elf or witch’s curse,_  
 _come out! Come out!_  
 _Thou art small._  
 _Thou art smaller still._  
 _Thou art smaller than a worm, than the blind eye of a worm, and I crush thee under my heel._  
 _Thus!_  
She grinds her heel into the floor. Her grandmother would frown on such superstitions, but Morwen Steelsheen is dead and Eowyn is alone.  
Theoden sighs, turns, dreaming briefly of Snowmane running free over green fields.

**_Over Death, Over Dread, Over Doom Lifted_ **

  
Nobody, seeing her walk proudly down the hall after her conversation with Grima, would know she is blind with tears. It is the sound of his harp that draws Eowyn’s attention to the minstrel in the corner.  
‘ _That passed and so may this_ ,’ sings Gleowine softly.  
She sits down beside him and listens as he sings of ancient grief: Eorl mourning his father, Brego mourning his son.  
‘ _That passed and so may this_.’  
‘Who made this song?’ she asks.  
‘I do not know,’ answers Gleowine. ‘But some say Helm’s daughter sang it towards the end of the Long Winter.’  
  
***  
  
She sits again beside Gleowine, watching a bar of sunlight laid across the floor of the hall.  
‘I’m working on it,’ says Gleowine quietly. ‘I will say of him: _Hope he rekindled and in hope ended_.’  
Eowyn remembers well the black moment when hope seemed very far away, but holds her peace. Is it not nevertheless the truth?  
‘Say also of him,’ she says instead, ‘that he was, in his day, the most generous of men, the most amiable and the kindest to his people—how he upheld the reputation of our House!’  
‘I will say that also’, promises Gleowine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note on the first drabble:
> 
> The title is from RotK ("The Houses of Healing")
> 
>  
> 
> Notes on the double drabble about Eowyn and Gleowine:
> 
> The first drabble is based on the Old English elegy "Deor" and quotes or paraphrases its refrain.  
> The second drabble takes elegy in a different and more general sense: "a lament for the dead". The quotation from Gleowine's lament for Theoden is taken from "Many Partings" in RotK, where his lament is quoted in part. (The title is also taken from Gleowine's lament.) The words Eowyn asks Gleowine to add to his song are actually a paraphrase of the lament for Beowulf (the character) with which the poem "Beowulf" ends. I thought this was appropriate as the description of Theoden's burial in RotK seems to be partly based on the description of Beowulf's burial in "Beowulf".


	4. Lady of Rohan II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Helm Hammerhand's daughter, her cousin Frealaf Hildeson and his son Brytta, called Leofa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> True drabbles written for the Old English Writings challenge at Tolkien Weekly for the prompts: calendar, tale, chronicle

**_A Spring of Little Hope_ **

_March brings the equinox._  
 _Then men must dig and sow…_  
  
But in Dunharrow there is little to sow, crowded as the place is with refugees. They must win back their fields first.  
She stands by her cousin’s horse. Still reeling with shock, when news came from the Hornburg, she was the first to take up the shout: “Frealaf king, Frealaf king!” The House of Eorl bows under the onslaught, but it must not break. She has woven her red ribbon into his bridle, fervently whispering charms for success.  
‘Bema speed thee!’  
Frealaf embraces her.  
‘He will. Hold Dunharrow for me!’

 

_**White as with a drifted snow** _

She stands by the burial mound. Already, it is covered with the kindlier snow of fast-growing _simbelmyne_. Out of Westfold, wild tales emerge of the last days of Helm Hammerhand. The father she is still mourning—a man often harsh, but not uncaring—has become legend.  
‘What will you do now?’ Frealaf asks her.  
‘Do? Why, there is work enough here for the rest of our lives! What one cruel winter cost us we will struggle years to regain!’  
She gazes at him, suddenly uncertain, but her newly-crowned cousin looks nothing short of relieved.  
‘I will have your help, still?’

 

**_Figures of Ancient Legends, Dim with Years_ **

_T.A. 2752 In this year Brytta was born, he who was afterwards called Leofa by his people, for he was loved by all._  
  
  
‘So did you ever get to see Wulf, even?’ young Brytta asks.  
‘Yes, I did—once!’  
‘And was he all ugly and black and fierce?’  
‘No!  He was quite handsome. But I could never have married him, you understand. My sons would have become a danger to my family—that was clear from the outset.’  
Helm’s daughter, white-haired now, looks at her solemn questioner and laughs.  
‘Do not pity me, dear! Not for this! There is no love story to chronicle here—no regrets! You are the only prince ever to have held my heart!’  
And she kisses Brytta’s cheek.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes on first drabble:
> 
> Tolkien says (LOTR Appendix A): "Soon after the winter broke. Then Frealaf, son of Hild, Helm's sister, came down out of Dunharrow, to which many had fled; and with a small company of desperate men he surprised Wulf in Meduseld and slew him, and regained Edoras."  
> The first two lines are supposed to be from a Rohirrim metrical calendar.  
> The title is from FotR ("The Great River").
> 
> Notes on second drabble:
> 
> Tolkien says (Appendix A): The Dunlendings were driven out [...] and Frealaf became king. Helm was brought from the Hornburg and laid in the ninth mound.  
> The title is taken from the chapter "The King of the Golden Hall" in "The Two Towers".
> 
> Notes on third drabble:  
> The line in italics is from the list of kings of Rohan in Appendix A, re-written slightly to fit the style of the early entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (which are technically annals). However, I did not manage to fit this inside the word count for the drabble, so there is another nod to the prompt within it. The title is taken from "The King of the Golden Hall" in "The Two Towers".

**Author's Note:**

> The Old English Writings challenge at Tolkien Weekly was prompted by the forthcoming publication of Tolkien's Beowulf translation.


End file.
